A guy from Vivint just came by - they want to put an antenna on my house

[ewth8tr]

Vivint stopped by today. They want to use my house as a hub home. The run fiber to their tower and then beam it to a dish on top of my house. Then there are line of site repeaters or something that beam it to 10-15 houses in my hood. My internet is free of charge although their equipment is going to add about five bucks a month to my power bill. Engineer guy said I'll get about 120mbps to my house. My Comcast is sufficient but I hate what they charge. I read the fine print and signed my name. Should be interesting to see how it works out.

They came by my house a couple of days ago asking the same thing.

[falafel]

They came by my house a couple of days ago asking the same thing.

I'm guessing the free internet pitch wasn't a draw for you.

[Uncle Ted]

How big is the dish?

[Shaka]

I'm guessing the free internet pitch wasn't a draw for you.

I'm guessing he already gets a smoking deal on his internet.

[Shaka]

Vivint installed this week and I just ran a speed test.

73 down and 95 up.

[Uncle Ted]

Vivint installed this week and I just ran a speed test.

73 down and 95 up.

Nice. What is the latency like?

[Moliere]

Vivint installed this week and I just ran a speed test.

73 down and 95 up.

That's a really fast upload rate. Kind of odd that it's faster than the download....but I'm sure it's nice to have that type of speed.

I'm still on Comcast's fastest plan in my area and I'm usually between 80-100 which has been nice.

[Shaka]

Nice. What is the latency like?

It depends who you believe. The test I'm using ping is 3ms. From the command prompt I ran to a different place and got 143ms. This time I got 91 down and 94 up.

[Uncle Ted]

It depends who you believe. The test I'm using ping is 3ms. From the command prompt I ran to a different place and got 143ms. This time I got 91 down and 94 up.

I am guessing your 3ms result is to Vivint headend. I get that kind of latency to the local AT&T office on fiber...

http://www.cougarstadium.com/showthr...=1#post1168400

[Shaka]

Changed the server on the second test. It chose Utopia.

[Uncle Ted]

So what exactly did they drop to your house? I would expect you to see this kind of bandwidth with copper wire. Did they install a business class coax or something?

[Shaka]

So what exactly did they drop to your house? I would expect you to see this kind of bandwidth with copper wire. Did they install a business class coax or something?

It's some new kind of wireless mesh network. The run fiber to their tower and then beam it to a dish on my house. From there it gets broadcast around the 'hood. I'm supposed to be quite a bit faster than everyone else.

[Shaka]

This gives a rundown on how it works. My house is the one with the microwave dish on it.

[Uncle Ted]

It's some new kind of wireless mesh network. The run fiber to their tower and then beam it to a dish on my house. From there it gets broadcast around the 'hood. I'm supposed to be quite a bit faster than everyone else.

I wonder what bands they are using for the wireless mesh. Maybe they are just using the 2.4/5.8 Ghz bands.

The amateur radio operators (HAMs) around here have a wireless mesh network that provides free internet to club members. It actually works pretty well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-sp...ltimedia_radio Of course, you are getting a much better deal than even these guys.

[Uncle Ted]

This gives a rundown on how it works. My house is the one with the microwave dish on it.

So it looks like they are using the 5 Ghz band with 80 Mhz channel (Edit: Actually 80+80 or 160 Mhz channel). What does the directional antenna (dish) look like?

Edit: Maybe something like this?



http://www.pcworld.com/article/20672...t-service.html